This flood disaster would not be a literal interpretation of the Flood of Noah. The water did not cover all the land. It did not rain non-stop for 40 days and nights. The Flood did not kill all human persons, nor all animals. These expressions in the Bible are figurative. The extent of the flood and its devastation is a figure for the extensiveness of sin in the world and the devastation of sin. The ark as the sole means of being saved from the Flood is a figure for the salvation offered by the Church, the sole ark of salvation.

But neither is the Flood entirely figurative. There are a number of scientists who believe that the Flood actually occurred. There is substantial evidence for a past severe worldwide flood-disaster of some kind. This explains why so many cultures have flood myths, with much similarity among them. There was an immense flood-disaster that occurred in the past, and it devastated the whole world. There was a Noah and an Ark. There were animals on the Ark, but they were there to represent life on earth. They were part of a living parable about salvation.

Interestingly, a particular researcher named W. Bruce Masse has a date for the Flood: 2807 B.C. He has a large amount of scientific evidence that dates the Flood to that approximate time period, and some evidence for that exact date.